Wood veneer is made by a veneer-peeling lathe which peels logs to produce a veneer ribbon. The ribbon is transported along a conveyor to a clipper which optically scans the veneer and cuts it into pieces. A computer coupled between the scanner and the clipper is programmed to optimize production of high quality full width pieces by activating the clipper such that perceived veneer defects are isolated into smaller width "trash" veneer pieces.
The veneer pieces output by the clipper travel along another conveyor. Typically, four different types of veneer pieces are output by the clipper:
1. "Full width" pieces which are rectangular in shape, four feet wide, and do not have open surface defects exceeding a predefined minimum area. PA1 2. "Random width" pieces which are rectangular in shape, less than four feet wide, and do not have open surface defects exceeding a predefined minimum area. PA1 3. "Fishtail" pieces which have a useable surface area but are characterized by a wavy trailing edge giving such pieces a non-rectangular shape. PA1 4. "Trash" pieces comprising all veneer pieces other than the three types listed above.
The clipper's output conveyor carries a rapidly moving, arbitrarily ordered stream containing pieces of each of the four types mentioned above. The stream must be sorted into different output paths, with each path containing substantially only pieces of the same type. For example, one path contains substantially only full width veneer pieces which can be processed together to manufacture high quality plywood. The other output paths can similarly be processed in a more efficient manner than would be the case if one had to work directly with the clipper's output stream in producing articles manufactured from veneer.
The present invention provides a veneer sorting apparatus which automates the process of sorting the clipper's output stream to yield different output paths, each containing veneer of a particular type.